Stevie's Career
 

How much longer can Stevie fill the smaller venues until she has to settle for doing Vegas ????? I LOVE her but she can't fill larger venues any longer.

She's been doing Vegas for several years now. I think what we're going to see are more pairings of her with other artists like she did with Petty, Henley and Isaac. Somehow, I don't see her as a short, opening act. Equal billing, or she probably won't do it. I'd see her home wrapped up in a cashmere blanket with the air con turned down to 50 and the fireplace blazing, comfy and content in retirement rather than tour as someone's opener.

True!!!LOL!:lol:

I agree ....I wasn't trying to imply that she would be an opening act......she is an icon!!!!!!

I'd have to say that out of all the female rockers:
Pat Benatar
Joan Jett
The Pretenders
Patti Smith
Heart
Debbie Harry
Blondie

Stevie brings in the most.

"Settle for Vegas"? Girlfriend was in Celine Dion's theater probably with access to Celine's "apartment" at Caesar's. Stephanie ain't showing up unless it's posh. She doesn't have to.

Oh, I think Stevie would have to "settle" if she did Vegas regularly. If Caesar's had offered her a contract, as they did Cher, Bette and Elton, I think she would have taken it. I always imagined that Stevie's stints at Caesar's were like an "audition" for a longer term gig. I wonder if one of the bigger hotels would use her more than 3-4 times a year, which wouldn't be enough to make a living. If she wanted more steady Vegas revenue, she'd have to perform at a smaller venue, maybe a bit off the strip, not in the Caesar's Palace ilk.

Michele

It was no secret that Ceasar's was in heavy negotiations with La Nicks in 2005 for a permanent gig in CD's theater. It was not to be an all year thing, but more like a guest appearance every few months or a set number of days a year. Many people around here heard the band members say that. I believe Stevie herself said it in an interview, but I do not know that for sure. Maybe something about touring getting harder as you get older?

Clearly, she could sell. I mean, though she is popular amongst the older crowd, when was the last hit the Divine Ms. M had and how many youngsters even know who she is?

So, I think that is Stevie wanted to do a Vegas act, she has the clout to pull it off. I think she does not want to do it - at least not now.

It'll be a cold day in hell when that happens.

Exactly - and, anectdotal evidence suggests she can sell given that she is playing or has played casinos outside of Vegas this and last year - mostly to great fanfare. And, those casinos are not in the people magnet known as Las Vegas.

I think more youngsters know who Bette Midler is than know who Stevie is, but youngsters are not who you need to attract for Vegas anyway. Well, Vegas skews young and old. So, both age groups can work there, but I just mean Caesar's didn't hire Bette for her ability to bring young people in. I think she got it because she has such a history with Vegas and also combines "jokes" with music and provided somewhat of a contrast to Cher and Elton.

Cher's gig is for, I don't even know, but they publicized it when she signed. Something like 300 shows over a two year period or 265 shows over a 3 year period, or something very finite like that. It gives her both a lot of money and a lot of flexibility.

I agree with you that it is clear Stevie could sell. But it's not clear to me that she could sell the BIG hotel venues week in and week out. Michele

Personally, I think she's too lazy to do an upscale Vegas gig that would generate buzz and excitement. I don't think she has it in her to hit mainstream again and create a smash hit that would conjure up new fans. She's too set in her ways and content with nostalgia.

The Vegas test is not whether you can sell one-off concerts, but whether you can consistently sell out consecutive dates. So, you're not really attracting your own fans anymore, but you have to attract those business travelers who are just passing through and want to catch any show. The difference in sales between Stevies's weekend shows in Vegas and the ones that occurred during the week would probably be a starting barometer to test her draw. So, look at the sales from Caesar's Palace on Tuesday compared to Saturday.

But the best test would be to have her in one place for 2 weeks at a time and see how that does.

Michele

She could sooo sell out the Imperial Palace stage! :]

Oh My God, that is so horrible to think about. That place is such a dive. She could definitely sell out the Hilton for the rest of her life.

Unfortunately, those are exactly the kind of people that Vegas attracts.:lol:

When you hit the same town again and again, that is when you have to change your set list. That is why the second leg of the SYW tour was such a suicide mission. People had just spent big money to see them a few months ago and even diehard fans didn't want to spend the money a second time for the same setlist.

But the beauty of Vegas is that you can stay the same because the audience changes all the time. So, you get those people, a new batch every week, who are there to hear Dreams and Stand Back and don't even want to hear anything else. It's kind of a lazy performer's paradise. It's very sad on one hand, but on the other . . .

I saw Cher talking about how amazing her set was going to be. I wonder if Stevie had the money to go all out on the set, a set that wouldn't have to travel, what she would conjure up. Michele

I think it would be GREAT for Stevie to play smaller venues. There would be a more intimate feel to her shows (like the VH1 Storytellers series) and I think it would add a new twist to her shows compared to her playing at larger arenas. It's only natural that as she ages she'll want to mellow out her performances a bit. Smaller theaters will allow her to do that w/out comprising her 'relationship' w her audience.

Isn't Toni Braxton occupying that spot? Michele

I do not think they ever thought about such a show. I think they negotiated for the show we saw, which in her opinion was fabulous and, in the opinion of CP, enough to spark negotiations and, if rumors are to be believed, an offer :shrug:

Everytime I go to Vegas, I stay at the IP! I have more important (booze) things to spend my money on. :D

I can't see CP thinking that show was good enough for a contract. It looked like a show-on-the-road, not a show for residency.

Who knows - maybe CP wanted more - but, it was not to be a permanent thing, so maybe they would have added more. I mean Bette is there pretty much all year - so, like CD, they are going to put money into the show. But, she specifically said she and her posse worked overtime and went overboard to make that 2005 show special and suitable for Vegas. I am not saying it was - I am saying she thought it was. La Nicks likely would never agree to a stage show with dancers, a la Bette's new show. But, who knows and anything is possible.

^I wouldn't mind seeing Sharon harnessed up and floating above the crowd during Landslide.


....or Jana leading the audience to a line-dance during the countrified Sorcerer.


:D

No, Barry Manilow is. She is at Flamingo or Bally's.

Doing Vegas is no longer considered to be "settling".

Oh, she is at Flamingo, but I thought that it was the Flamingo Hilton. Maybe Hilton sold it.

You know I have to laugh at the comment about Sharon flying in a harness, because when I thought of Stevie permanently installed at Caesar's I did find myself wondering what she would have floating in the air, given the chance. Celine had a bride, a bicycle . . . Stevie would have the Three Birds of Rhiannon up there, for sure . . .

Even now, in concert when Stevie simply shows old footage of herself on the back screen, it's very moving. Imagine if she did something more elaborate. I don't think I ever got over seeing Mary Poppins flying out of the movie screen when I went to see the Ice Capades as a child. So I keep thinking of Stevie emerging onto the stage, from one of her old music videos, like "I Can't Wait."

Obviously, I'm a Sonny Bono fan and the most meaningful part of Cher's show is where she pays tribute to Sonny. But she has always had a segment like that in her acts, ever since 1978. She didn't just include it when he died.

This all reminds me of the way Lindsey described the Dance cover. He made it much more interesting than the stupid picture actually looks. He says they are all forming a Matisse circle on top of 20 years worth of band rubble. I think it would be great if more meaningful band artifacts were pictured in the shot than what is actually there. Use a symbol from each album, not just Rumours. It would be interesting to put together.

Michele

That depends on how you do Vegas. When you think of The Rat Pack, Sinatra, Elvis, Vegas has never been a career pitfall. But there's good Vegas and a bad Vegas. Michele

If Stevie doesn't package an interesting Vegas-style show, word-of-mouth will kill a long-term gig for her. I think the average Vegas-goer is looking for something very glam and glittering, a spectacle. If Stevie's show is just her performing the same as when she does a summer 'shed' tour, and the only added thing is the projector with the pictures, people will be bored. And the people who are casual fans only and get bored will return home and tell their co-workers, families, or other moms on the soccer field how you shouldn't waste your slot machine $$ on Stevie and to check out Cher instead.

The stage should be a rich hodge-podge of potted palms, Persian carpets, Tiffany lamps, shawls draped over stuff and lots of candles (Las Vegas FD standing by with extinguishers). Her entrance should be dramatic, and she needs to engage her audience. Think along the lines of the 'Storytellers' special, or even the sweet segment during the 'Enchanted' tour where she brought out ATGF, 'Garbo', 'Rose Garden' and 'Sleeping Angel' and gave a little commentary on each.

You know what I'd love to see? What if Stevie, using high-tech multimedia FX, re-created the scenes of wormhole travel with Jody Foster in "Contact"? Imagine Stevie, Sharon & Jana "good to go" . . . .

Does anyone have any figures on how many people were at Stevie's shows???? Those of you who went to see Stevie in Vegas were they sellouts??????

Believe it or not, I'm not so sure that doing Vegas is "Settling." It's HUGE money. Celine Dion was paid a hundred million dollars for a five-years contract with Caesar's Palace.
i.m.h.o., for Stevie doing Vegas is a dream gig! :]

On edit:


Yeah and I saw the photos on the Caesar's Palace website of that Penthouse - it's un-be-freaking-lievable. :shocked: It blows the suite at the Waldorf-Astoria away, and that' SAYING something!
(I THINK the W.-A. suite is like . . . $5,000 a night or something - The record company works out a deal, of course, to try to lower it.)


i.m.o. the REAL test is how many gamblers you bring in, and how much loot they spend. I would imagine they literally look at the numbers there, to decide whether or not they keep an act.

There were about 5 or 6 thousand at the two shows at Jones Beach that I went to - 2005 and 2007. The second one was in really bad weather.
I think maybe Jones Beach is a pretty small venue, though, "even for Stevie" - there were definitely bigger ones along the way.
Wild guess, but I would think a usual crowd would be maybe 10 thou. or so.

Lovely Jones Beach theater used to be on the smallish side.
It was built in 1952, and from that year until 1990 it was 8,200 seats. This is the Jones Beach theater of my memory, where you could but tickets directly from the theater itself and not Ticketmaster, and if you got there early enough your $20 was just as good as anyone else's for a floor seat or even first row.

In 1991 it expaned to 11,200 seats.
In 1998 it expanded to 15,200 and sold it's naming rights for the first time. It then became 'Tommy Hilfiger' or some such corporate name. Now, it's 'Nikon'.

So, if Stevie sold 5 or 6 thousand tickets for a 15,200 seat arena, that's dismal. But, the promoters might still have made some $$. Not sure if the acts get a flat-rate for the entire summer season of touring or if it is show-by-show. Maybe it's both, depending on the act.

At any rate, this ampitheater now is just hopelessly large, and there is no more intimacy there unless you are willing to swill out alot of money for the first section (probably now called 'golden circle' or some **** like that). The new seats waaayyyy up in the stands? You can't see jack. You can only really see what's on the monitors, and what fun is that.

Oh, and they banned booze many years ago. But, you can buy a $5 bottle of water.

I don't know if the gamblers see a lot of the shows, but their bored, non-gambling family members probably do!

I know what you're saying. The reason that Vegas food used to be so cheap (it isn't on The Strip anymore) is that the hotels lured the people in to eat and then kept them there to gamble. But I don't know if people who come in to see a 2 hour show in Vegas are actually all revved up to gamble when they leave.

Now, when I went to see FM in Chumash, that was a different story. Because there was nothing ELSE to do for miles. The hotel was just opening and they didn't even have room service yet. So, yeah I did hang around in the casino area after the show. But in Vegas it's a little different.

Michele

Agreed. I also agree with Michele about how those few day-stints were actually auditions for a long term contract. And La Nicks didn't deliver. Her show's okay for a few days, but in no way did she "fill that stage" the way Celine and Elton did and Cher and Bette will undoubtedly do. Those four are Vegas acts. Stevie would really have to spice up her shows to even come near that level. Whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing, that's a personal preference.

Only the Saturday show was almost sold out. The entire upper level was empty the other three nights, and the first two nights only half of the first level was filled.

I absolutely agree with all of this. I think Stevie wanted that gig in the WORST way! :shocked: I'm not saying Cher's show is "better" - but it's more "showy" and, frankly, better suited to a Las Vegas environment. In my opinion, of course. But I think maybe Stevie didn't really understand what was expected of her in terms of the stage show aspect - she talked so much about how "trippy" it was but - well, not putting her down, but she had a white bird flying through the air and some black and white footage from an old movie in the background, with some family photographs or something as filler. For us as fans? WOW! STUNNING! SO emotional!

For "casual" fans? Not so much. Especially when compared to what Cher and Celine Dion (and "their people") put together.

Maybe it's just an "opportunity" that Stevie explored which she turned out to be not so well-suited for. Happens to everybody. Some people are pretty good baseball-team owners. :lol:

Um - I was there on those last nights and the upper section looked mostly full to me - though she did not sell out. In act in the first set of shows, Slulamith (Sharon sat up there one night) and she said it was full, though seats were available. Interestestingly, she must have done ok because they booked her again at the end of the tour and she keeps being booked into other casinos :shrug: Also, many (maybe 25-50% of the seats are comped by CP and other casinos as a perk. Also, she still successfully tours the sheds and they are usually 5-10,000 seats or more. Finally, she would be the only old time rock act in Vegas, which could be a draw to the person who does not want to see Manilow :shrug:

As for the GD tour shows not being a spectacle - it hardly is fair to expect her or CP to invest wel over a million (more like 10+ million) in a high style Vegas act for five nights :shrug: I mean CD and BM's current gigs took months if not over a year to plan and produce :shrug: So, I think she did the best with the time and the money considering it was not a gig on the lines of 200+ nights a year.

Also, I believe CD also had a huge house in Vegas and did not realy live in the CP penthouse :eek:

The word at the time was they wanted too many shows and she was thinking like a few weeks a year. Who knows what really happened though.

Are you talking about 2005 or 2007?

2005 - I know nothing about 2007.